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PEDRO GIBERT AND OTHERS. 745

the ocean of life. There are in his bosom the same social sym-
pathies that animate our own. Hoe has nerves to feel pain,
and a heart to throb with human affections, even as ‘you have.
His life, to establish the law, or to further the ends of jus-
tice, is not required. Taken, it is to us of no value; given to
him, it is above the price of rubies,

And Costa, the eabin boy, only fifteen years of age when
this crime was committed—shall he die? Shall the sword fall
upon his neck? Some of you are advanced in years—you
may have children. Suppose the news had reached you that
your son was under trial for his life, in a foreign country (and
every cabin boy who leaves this port may be placed in the
situation of this prisoner), suppose you were told that he had
been executed, because his captain and officers had violated
the laws of a distant land; what would be your feelings? I
cannot tell, but I believe the feelings of all of you would be
the same, and that yon would exclaim, with the Hebrew, “My
son! my son! would to God I had died for thee.” This boy
has a father; let the form of that father rise up before you.
and plead in your hearts for his offspring. Perhaps he has
a mother, and a home. Think of the lengthened shadow that
must have been cast over that home by his absence. Think
of his mother, during those hours of wretchedness, when she
has felt hope darkening into disappointment, next into anxi-
ety, and from anxiety into despair. How often may she have
stretched forth her hands in supplication and asked even the
winds of heaven to bring her tidings of him who was away?
Let the supplications of that mother touch your hearts, and
shield their object from the law.

I have thus endeavored to impreas upon you that you are
not to judge of these men in a mass. Condemn not, I beseech
you, 4 single one of them, unless you see upon his hands the
red spot of guilt. It is my interest, as a member of society,
as much aa it is yours, that the guilty should be punished.
‘Where the sin lies, there let the axe fall; but be sure that the
erime has been committed ere you inflict the penalty. You
never can be called to perform a more serious duty than the

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